Snow day: Eagles ride Saquon Barkley and Jalen Carter to a messy win over the Rams to reach the NFC championship game

Neither snow, nor rain, nor gloom of night could keep the Eagles from reaching their destiny.

As it turns out, their destiny is the NFC championship game. They’ve been piloted there for the second time in three seasons, by the unlikely combination of Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hurts.

Well, last time they rode Hurts and Sirianni. Hurts had an MVP-caliber season and Sirianni should have been coach of the year in 2022, but neither deserved either honor this season, and neither acquitted himself particularly well on Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams, either. Sunday was all about the kicker to an extent, Jalen Carter to be sure, and, of course, Saquon Barkley. He ran for a franchise playoff record 205 yards on 26 carries, including TD runs of 62 yards in the first quarter and 78 yards in the fourth. Carter had two sacks and forced a fumble, extending a brilliant sophomore season at least one more week, when the Washington Commanders visit.

» READ MORE: Eagles-Rams stock watch: Saquon Barkley, Jalen Carter up after playoff win

“Man, they stepped up big-time,” said corner Darius Slay. “Both of them. Big-time.”

Hurts, a Texas kid who played at Alabama and Oklahoma, was, predictably, less impactful. He opened the scoring with a 44-yard TD run, but, partly due to a twisted left knee, he largely was coincidental after that. He offered no guarantees that he would be available when the Commanders come in. That he remained available Sunday was remarkable: No turnovers, 15-for-20, 128 passing yards, seven runs for 70 yards. He was cold in every sense of the word.

“It was a … new experience,” Hurts admitted.

But, as Hurts always says, and says correctly, all that mattered was the win, their 14th in 15 outings, this one a blemished 28-22 victory.

It was that sort of game. Weather dictated.

“Wasn’t that bad,” said Barkley — but then, he’s a Lehigh Valley native who played for Penn State and then for the New York Giants.

Despite a dire forecast, Sunday really wasn’t quite Snow Bowl Part II, a replication of a December game in 2013 at Lincoln Financial Field when LeSean McCoy set the former single-game rushing record with 217 yards. Eight inches of snow fell that day.

» READ MORE: Nick Sirianni has earned another week, another year, and many more. The Eagles should extend him immediately.

No more than 3 inches fell Sunday. It rained and sleeted a bit before the game, quieted down, lightly snowed for about an hour early on, stopped for about 30 minutes, then resumed, with a strong and bitter wind behind it, until late in the fourth quarter, when it slowed a bit as temperatures plummeted.

It was like playing in a snow globe with a mushy bottom. The Eagles grounds crew used leaf blowers to clear the yardage lines and hash marks during stoppages in play.

Which made it as ugly as you might imagine.

Jake Elliott missed two extra points. Hurts took a bad sack late in the second quarter that cost the Eagles a long field-goal try, one of seven sacks he suffered, about half of them his fault. That one wasn’t as bad as the one late in the third quarter: With the ball at the Eagles’ 8-yard line, Cam Jurgens and Landon Dickerson let Neville Gallimore charge up the middle, where he dropped the hobbled Hurts in the end zone for a safety that made it 16-15 just before the end of the third quarter.

No worries. Carter came through, punching the ball out of Kyren Williams’ hands on the second play of the Rams’ possession. Isaiah Rodgers gathered it and galloped 40 yards.

Then Lane Johnson flinched on fourth-and-goal from the 1, which negated a successful Tush Push. The Eagles settled for three points, a 19-15 lead, and soon were set for more.

That’s because Nolan Smith strip-sacked Stafford with just over 11 minutes to play. The Birds had it at the Rams’ 38-yard line. They made it to the 19, and Elliott cashed in a 37-yarder for a touchdown lead with 6 minutes, 18 seconds left.

The Eagles held, Barkley exploded for the second long score, and, after the Rams rumbled down the field for a 70-yard touchdown drive and stood on the doorstep for another, Carter crushed Matthew Stafford for a 9-yard loss that made it fourth-and-11.

“Our defense went out there and ended it on their terms,” Hurts said.

Sure enough, Stafford misfired on fourth down, and Hurts and everybody else went indoors to get warm.